WarnerMedia International has decided to discontinue its movie channels — in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bangladesh from 15 December 2020.
However, it will continue to operate its kids platforms such as Cartoon Network and Pogo.
“After 20 years of successes for the HBO linear movie channel in South Asia and more than a decade with the WB linear movie channel, this was a difficult decision to make. The pay-TV industry landscape and the market dynamics have shifted dramatically, and the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the need for further change,” said Siddharth Jain, SVP and Managing Director of WarnerMedia’s entertainment network in South Asia, in a statement.
The company, in its statement, further said that its offices in Mumbai, Bengaluru and India will continue to regulate and will handle kids channels’ sales and operations.
HBO also has a content syndication partnership with Disney Hotstar in India and will continue to provide its services. HBO shows such as “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.” will be available for streaming.
The closure of channels shows major chunk in televised English entertainment broadcast in India. One of the reasons for this could be easy availability of English content on over-the-top(OTT) platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney Hotstar and Hulu.
The growth of OTT platforms have even accelerated amid the covid-19 pandemic. The growth which was expected by 2021-2022 has already been recorded in this period.
“Between March and November 2019, around 30 Mn internet users came online for the first time from rural areas,” a report said.
